Field
The embodiments of this document are directed to a window panel for a display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the window panel, and a window panel integrated type touch screen and a method of manufacturing the touch screen.
Related Art
Display apparatuses, such as liquid crystal displays, field emission displays (FEDs), electroluminescent displays, and plasma display panel displays, attract attention due to high response speed, low power consumption, and high color reproduction ratio. Such display apparatuses are used for various electronics including TVs, computer monitors, laptop computers, mobile phones, displays for refrigerators, personal digital assistants, automated teller machines. In general, these display apparatuses constitute an interface with users using various input devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, digitizers, or more. However, the keyboard or mouse is disadvantageous in that a user needs to learn how to use and it occupies a space. In response to increased demand for simple and less malfunctioned input devices, touch screen panels have been suggested that allow a user to directly input information with his/her hand or pen.
Because the touch screen panel has a simple configuration, which minimizes erroneous operations, the user can perform an input action without using a separate input device, and can quickly and easily manipulate through contents displayed on a screen. Accordingly, the touch screen panel has been applied to various display devices. Such touch screen panels are weak in scratches or bending when information is input on the touch screen panel using fingers or pen, and thus require a window panel to be attached thereon in order to prevent the touch screen panels from being scratched and bended. However, adding the window panel leads to an increase in thickness of the entire touch screen panel.
Accordingly, there have been suggested methods of fabricating a touch screen panel by reinforcing a window panel and then forming touch electrodes on a surface of the window panel. This method eliminates the need of a separate substrate for the touch screen panel, thus resulting in a decrease in thickness of the touch screen panel.
Such fabricating methods include a cell unit window panel fabricating method and a sheet unit window panel fabricating method. In the cell unit window panel fabricating method, a whole sheet glass substrate is cut into a plurality of cells and the cells are separately subjected to a reinforcing treatment. In the sheet unit window panel fabricating method, a whole sheet glass substrate is firstly reinforced and then cut into a plurality of cells.
However, the “first-cut-and-next-reinforcement” characteristics of the cell unit window panel fabricating method cause it difficult to guarantee mass productivity. Moreover, the cell unit window panel fabricating method generally needs to use a jig when forming touch electrodes on the cut cell unit unit window panels, which renders work hard due to x, y, and z-axis tolerances between each cell unit unit window panel and a seating portion of the jig on which the cell unit unit window panel is rested or a deviation of each cell unit unit window panel, thus resulting in a lowering of throughput.
In contrast, the sheet unit window panel fabricating method subjects a whole sheet glass substrate to a reinforcing treatment, so that time required for reinforcing treatment can be saved. Further, it is not necessary to form touch electrodes on the cell unit window panels one by one, which can increase fabrication throughput.
In the conventional sheet unit window panel fabricating method, however, when the reinforced whole sheet glass substrate is cut into a plurality of cells, loss of reinforced layers occurs at the cutoff surfaces together with tiny cracks as shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a photomicrography taking a picture of a cutoff surface of a reinforced whole sheet substrate, wherein tiny cracks are created at the cutoff surface.
As a consequence, the conventional sheet unit window panel fabricating method requires a polishing process for polishing the cutoff surface using a polishing machine to remove the cracks from the cutoff surface. Further, since the cutoff surface remains with the reinforced layers lost, the cutoff surface needs to be reinforced once more to maintain durability. As such, the conventional sheet unit substrate window panel fabricating method requires additional polishing and reinforcing processes.